17th January 2007, 11:45 PM
I feel strongly that any speeding up of the planning process, for developments big or small, puts the process laid out in MAP2 at risk and by extension undermines the goals of PPG16.
One of the most disturbing developments in the field of late is the foreshortening of the time period available to do archaeological evaluation and mitigation, presumably because planning departments are under pressure to make a quick turnaround on planning applications. Increasingly our evaluations merge into the mitigation phase. There is no time to take stock, do strat phasing, process finds, get specialist reports, dates, in short anything, before being forced to devise a methodology on the spot to mitigate. Correct me if I'm wrong but surely this goes against the central tenets of MAP2 and PPG16?
Any simplification (read speeding up)of the planning system is going to make this worse, but perhaps current guildance on archaeological remains is one of the obstacles they seek to remove. I fear the golden age is about to end.[xx(]
One of the most disturbing developments in the field of late is the foreshortening of the time period available to do archaeological evaluation and mitigation, presumably because planning departments are under pressure to make a quick turnaround on planning applications. Increasingly our evaluations merge into the mitigation phase. There is no time to take stock, do strat phasing, process finds, get specialist reports, dates, in short anything, before being forced to devise a methodology on the spot to mitigate. Correct me if I'm wrong but surely this goes against the central tenets of MAP2 and PPG16?
Any simplification (read speeding up)of the planning system is going to make this worse, but perhaps current guildance on archaeological remains is one of the obstacles they seek to remove. I fear the golden age is about to end.[xx(]